Aldean starts tour in Louisiana

Thursday, February 21, 2013 – Jason Aldean rolled in Bossier City, La. toay with 19 buses and trucks and more than 100 band and crew members roll for the first show of the 2013 Night Train Tour's sold out run. Jake Owen and Thomas Rhett are set to open the tour that has already sold more than 350,000 tickets for the first dates.

"We've been down in Tupelo, Miss. the last week or so getting ready," said Aldean. "It's like Christmas with all the new toys we've got on stage...I don't even understand how my crew makes all this happen night after night, but it's awesome. I'm pumped about the new songs we've added to the set, and everything just feels fresh and exciting. I wasn't sure how we would top the My Kinda Party tour, but I feel pretty certain we've done it."

Among the songs Aldean will play from his new disc are 1994, The Only Way I Know, Night Train and When She Says Baby.

Aldean announced this week that the third single off "Night Train" is 1994. He will debut the song on Tuesday on Today and on Wednesday on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

CD reviews for Jason Aldean

Arguing whether or not Jason Aldean's kinda (country) party is, in fact, anything remotely related to true country music is pointless. Aldean is so entrenched in the mainstream country marketplace now, we just need to accept him as he is, the same way we reluctantly accept Taylor Swift as "country." It's mighty tempting to subtitle a review of Aldean's new "Old Boots, New Dirt" release as 'Pickup Trucks & Pickup Lines,' as Aldean spends a little time »»»

Jason Aldean is getting used to the view from the top. His last album "My Kinda Party" spawned 5 Top 10 singles and has charted for almost 2 years. Driven by rocking country coupled with rap and a power ballad, that album seemed to rise to the top of the charts organically. With his fifth release, "Night Train," he seems to be taking dead aim at the summit.
Aldean is at his best as a studly outlaw, but the majority of the material on "Night Train" is clichéd »»»

Jason Aldean covers plenty of familiar ground in his latest offering, moving with ease from tanned-leg Georgia dreams to square cornfields to a fairly even mix of church pews and bar stools. If anything, the album is a bit too seamless, one song melding into the next, the words on many evaporating into thin air.
But it all adds up to a very good time - exactly what you'd hope for with an album with "party" in its title. Don't Wanna Stay , a duet with Kelly Clarkson (of all »»»

Editorial: Walking the talk –
When names like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Waylon and the Hag are invoked, you're talking hard core country. These are the touchstones of country , the guys who made country music what it was and still is (or maybe can be). When these folks would sing about being down-and-out and the rough-and-tumble, they knew of what they were singing about. Fast forward a few years to the country singers of today. »»»

Concert Review: Gibson Brothers join "Brotherhood" in style –
The idea of releasing "Brotherhood" by veteran bluegrass band The Gibson Brothers was a natural. The disc paid tribute to a long list of brother acts including the Everlys and lesser known acts like the York Brothers and the Four Brothers.
While the younger Gibson, Leigh, sure gave Eric a ton of grief throughout the show - all in jest, of... »»»

Concert Review: Moorer, Gauthier pull for each other –
In their own right, Allison Moorer and Mary Gauthier did not really need the other because each is most capable of headlining.
But in one of those geniuses of booking, fans had the chance to see the two in a most enjoyable and alternative setting - a good, old-fashioned guitar pull.
That meant that the two were seated in comfortable chairs on... »»»

Young bluegrass artist Nathan Stanley doesn't fall far from the branches of the family tree; he honors the legacy of his grandfather, Dr. Ralph Stanley, by delivering straight ahead traditional bluegrass music, interpreting old classics that have shaped him and his music. At the same time, young Stanley is an original, refusing to sing the old songs in the ways they've been performed before. "If it's been done," he says, "I don't think I'll do it that way."... »»»

Eric Gibson, the elder (by less than a year) of the award winning, New York-born Gibson Brothers says that the new Rounder release by he and brother Leigh, "Brotherhood," was more than a decade in the making. "It seemed like every time we'd get ready to do a new record, we'd have a batch of new songs that we felt we needed to get out there...but (Leigh) really pushed me on this... »»»

When you call yourselves The Mavericks, you have a reputation to live up to. The long-running country band may have addressed that issue from the get go with "Mono," their second disc since reforming in 2011. For non-audiophiles, music is almost exclusively recorded in stereo, considered a higher quality sound.
... »»»

Trout Steak Revival has found its voice. A group of Midwest transplants now firmly rooted in the Colorado High Country bluegrass scene, this five-piece band brings real songwriting craft to its third full-length release where TSR goes for the brass ring. »»»

Virginia-native, Belmont educated, Canaan Smith was deemed as "One to Watch in 2012" after his debut single "We Got Us" charted that year. Still, it was nearly three years before his next single "Love You Like That" dropped this past summer. With more than 200,000 downloads, it went number 1 on Sirius XM, but fans have been forced to wait until now for an EP release. »»»

The concept of female/male country duos is not new exactly, but it's a rare breed these days. There's Thompson Square, and there was the far too short-lived The Civil Wars. And now Striking Matches are out with their debut full-length, which skews far closer to Joy Williams and John Paul White than the Thompsons. »»»

The funky keyboard line that introduces the song "Checkin' Out," with its Ray Charles soulful feel, fills the listener with false promise that "Spring Break...Checkin' Out," the latest and last in Luke Bryan's spring break EP series, might mark a more innovative direction in the bro country star's music. »»»